SNL Presents Scarlett Johansson in ‘Black Widow: Age of Me’

It’s not coincidence that Scarlett Johansson guest hosted SNL on the same weekend that Avengers: Age of Ultron opened in theaters, so of course the show had to do a Marvel sketch of some kind. And unlike the previous Avengers sketches cooked up for Chris Hemsworth and Jeremy Renner, this one is actually a pretty effective dig at the Marvel movie machine. More importantly, it’s very funny.

The scene is a fake trailer for Black Widow’s nonexistent solo movie, titled Black Widow: Age of Me. Since Marvel Studios obviously has no idea how to make the whole “female superhero movie” thing work, this sketch showcases a hilariously epic miscalculation, throwing Johansson’s badass super-spy into a very typical, by-the-numbers romantic comedy. It’s even from the writers of 27 Dresses!

The trailer follows a very familiar template, even indulging in its fair share of intentionally terrible jokes to hit that bad rom-com vibe. When she’s not hanging out with her fellow Avengers, Black Widow is working at New York City’s hottest fashion magazine. Then she has a meet-cute with the robotic Ultron, who turns out to be a total jerk, of course. Before long, she realizes that the real love of her life was in front of her face all along. Awww.

As silly as all of this is, the result is sketch that ruthlessly parodies lousy romantic comedies while taking Marvel to task for not knowing how to serve the women in its roster. In an episode that frequently struggled to get anything right, this is modern SNL doing what it does best.